Various mining vehicles, such as rock drilling equipment, loading equipment and transport equipment, are used in a mine. Mining vehicles may be manned or unmanned. Unmanned mining vehicles may be remote-controlled from a control room, for instance, and they may be equipped with measuring instruments suitable for location determination. Unmanned mining vehicles may be driven automatically along a desired route in the mine, as long as the location of the device can be determined. The location of the device may be determined by using laser scanners, for instance.
Mining tunnels are usually narrow, and there is a risk that a mining vehicle hits a mine wall or obstacles along the route while travelling the route. It is known to equip an unmanned mining vehicle with a scanner and to monitor an area of a predetermined size in front of the mining vehicle. WO2004/086084 A1 discloses an apparatus in which at least one lateral safety zone is predetermined around a mining vehicle. In case an obstacle is detected on the basis of scanning in the safety zone determined for the mining vehicle, an alarm is given and the mining vehicle stops automatically.